440 REMARKS ON THE GENUS IORA. 



Passing into Burmah, though the tiphia type may prevail, 

 the variations become more numerous and conspicuous. Birds 

 with the entire nape and back black, or the entire crown and 

 nape black, and the back much fringed with that colour, are 

 not uncommon, and become more and more so I believe as you 

 go south, until at Singapore the majority, I believe, of the males 

 when in breeding plumage exhibit a considerable amount of black 

 on the upper surface, and some at any rate occur (how rarely 

 or how commonly 1 cannot say) of the purely typical zeylonica 

 type. 



We preserved a very great number of these birds in the 

 Malay Peninsular, and if any other distinct form occurred 

 otherwise than as an exceptional straggler, we must have pro- 

 cured it just as we did Lafresnayi and viridissima, and there- 

 fore, despite what has been urged to the contrary, I submit with 

 some confidence that the species there found does not exhibit 

 a bit more golden yellow on chin, throat, and breast than do 

 many Southern Indian breeding males, though, of course, this 

 colour varies first according to season ; and, secondly, according 

 to individuals, so that either a series or the most golden of each 

 must be compared. 



That the yellow of the throat, &c, of many Malayan speci- 

 mens is far more golden than that of Calcutta, or even the 

 great majority of Northern Burmese birds is undeniable, but 

 this is only because in this, as in other points as you go south, the 

 species reverts more and more to the Southern Indian type. 



As for the greater stoutness of the bills, &c, &c, as before 

 remarked, I am quite convinced, after a careful study of several 

 huudred specimens in my own and other collections, that, so 

 far as specimens from all parts of the western half of the 

 Malay Peninsular, Burmah, India and Ceylon are concerned, 

 these differences are individual, and neither local nor connected 

 with different shades or types of plumage. 



As regards adult males in the non-breeding season, precisely 

 similar individuals may be met with throughout the whole area; 

 but in the extreme south of the Indian Peninsular many (pro- 

 bably the majority) and in the south of the Malay Peninsular, 

 some retain more or less black about the upper parts, and bright 

 yellow on the lower throughout the year. 



This, therefore, is the point for decision. Given a species, of 

 which the females and (probably) immature males are abso- 

 lutely inseparable throughout its entire area, of which the 

 males in breeding plumage as a body (but not in either case 

 invariably) in certain parts of its area, assume a great deal of 

 black and bright yellow, and in others little or none of the 



